Shaun Pollock Slams India’s Disappointing Batting Performance: The Indian cricket team suffered a middle-order batting collapse with the likes of senior batsmen Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara failing once again to make a notable contribution with the bat once again in the ongoing second Test match in Johannesburg.
Riding on the half-century of KL Rahul and R Ashwin‘s quickfire 46 runs helped India post a target of 202 runs for the hosts. Barring Rahul and Ashwin, no other player managed to put on a fight against the South African bowlers on Day 1. The rest of the players including Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara failed to read the length and line of the Proteas pacers and were bundled up after throwing away their wickets cheaply.
STUMPS on Day 1 of the 2nd Test.
South Africa 35/1, trail #TeamIndia 202 by 167 runs.
Scorecard – https://t.co/qcQcovZ41s #SAvIND pic.twitter.com/FAaPxWSwgZ
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 3, 2022
Meanwhile, a former South Africa captain has criticized the performance of the Indian batting unit. During an interaction on Cricbuzz Chatter, Pollock told Dinesh Karthik that he was “a bit disappointed” with how the players failed to deal with the wide off-stumps delivery. He said:
“I’m a little bit disappointed with the way India batted. The key element is how you combat to whatever is thrown at you. If you look at the 10 dismissals, all were catches. I don’t think the Indian batters left as well as they could’ve. They got off to a good but not the best batting display; I think South Africa have fought hard,”
Talking about the game, on Day 1 Marco Jansen was the star of the day as he ended the day with 4/34 while Kagiso Rabada and Duanne Oliver took three wickets each. After getting the Indian side bowled out for a total of 202 runs, South Africa themselves got a shaky start as Aiden Markram was dismissed LBW by Mohammed Shami for 7. As of now, SA is trailing by 131 runs on Day 2.
